The Unexpected Suicide Mission
by radredknuxfan
Summary: What would you do when that feeling you get that something is going to go wrong actually comes true? Well, Shepard and his team get a chance to make that decision when a seemingly normal mission turns into a fight for survival. Set during the events of Mass Effect 2. Oneshot. Rated T for swearing and some blood. Please read & review! COMPLETE


So here's the thing. While I don't mind that there have been a lot of stories with FemShep as the main character, I feel that MaleShep doesn't get a whole lot of love. Hell, there's a huge difference in the amount of stories tagged between both genders, which is kind of crazy! Anyway, this also features what I consider as my favorite characters in the Mass Effect series, which I won't mention here because you can easily read figure it out in the character tags. It's also a oneshot, too, considering what I have in mind isn't suitable for a multi chapter fic. So, now that we've got all that out of the way, enjoy!

* * *

The Terminus System was a quiet place. Despite the general lawlessness of most of the planets contained within this system, the lawbreakers weren't out at this time, so as the SSV Normandy SR-2 floated through space, the only thing the crew could hear was the hum of the cruiser's engines.

Inside the Normandy's command deck, Commander Shepard was busy flipping through all of the dossiers he received, trying to decide which one was best to go after next. He had already retrieved most of his team for their journey through the Omega-4 Relay, including some old friends that he never would have expected to see again after their battle with Saren and Sovereign.

Sighing, Shepard rubbed at his temples with the hand that didn't have the Omni-Tool on it and closed the program that contained the dossiers. After heading up the small set of stairs towards the Galaxy Map, Shepard decided to go after the assassin and see if he was worth adding to the team.

However, just as he was about to give the order for Joker to set course for Illium, EDI suddenly spoke up.

"Commander, the Illusive Man wishes to speak with you. He says it's important."

Curious, Shepard wondered exactly what the Cerberus leader wanted, considering the last time they've spoken was when he received the second set of dossiers.

"Put him through. I'll meet him in the comm room."

Without waiting for an answer, Shepard turned away from the galaxy map, heading back down the stairs and walking towards the back area of the deck. On the way, he passed by both Mordin and Jacob, who were too busy with their own tasks to want to chat. He wasn't too worried about it, though, as he didn't want to keep the Illusive Man waiting.

Once he reached the communications room, Shepard stepped into the hologram projector and allowed it to scan his body and transfer the projection. Shepard opened his eyes to find the Illusive Man sitting in his chair just like always.

"Shepard! I heard that your mission to retrieve Tali was a success. I hope that your work is still going as smoothly as it has been."

"Get to the point, Illusive Man. I don't have all day." said Shepard, slightly irritated.

The Illusive Man was slightly surprised by Shepard's tone of voice, but he hid it well, taking a drag from his cigarette before speaking.

"Alright then, down to business. I've received word that a squadron that was stationed on the planet Haestrom has gone missing. I believe that you may have met them before."

Shepard had a pretty good idea of who the Illusive Man was talking about.

"Kal'Reegar's squad? What happened to them?"

"I'm afraid that I wasn't actually given any more information past that. Apparently they must have stopped checking in soon after your mission on the planet."

Shepard paused, looking down at the floor for a moment.

"Wait, I thought the geth killed his men?" he asked.

"That is true, but after the geth were driven off of the planet, Kal'Reegar was given a new squad to command while he searched for any remaining geth on the planet."

"So I'm assuming this means that you want us to find out what happened to them?"

"That would be correct. There was no evidence of any ships leaving Haestrom besides the Normandy, so odds are would be that they are still on the planet."

"Understood. We'll get right on it." said Shepard before cutting the commlink.

Shepard paused for a moment, thinking about the fact that the sun was going to make their mission way more difficult than it needed to be, before sighing once more and heading towards the exit.

"Joker, set course for Haestrom."

"Haestrom? Weren't we just there to get Tali?" asked Joker through the comlink.

"Yes, we were, but Kal'Reegar's squadron went missing, and the Illusive Man wants us to find them."

"Understood, Commander. We should be able to get there within the next couple of hours."

Shepard didn't reply, choosing instead to make his way back towards the command center as he tried to formulate a plan to complete the mission ahead of him.

* * *

A few hours later, Shepard was inside his cabin, having just woken up from a nap he decided to take so that he would be rested enough for the mission.

After sitting down at his desk, he decided to skim through the dossiers again for what felt like the hundredth time, only to be interrupted by the crackle of the PA system as Joker's voice came through.

"Commander, we should be getting within reach of Haestrom in about thirty minutes. I'd suggest thinking about who you're gonna take with you, because I really don't want to be hovering too close to the planet."

Shutting down his omni-tool once again, Shepard stood up and began pacing, weighing his options as he tried to decide who would be best to take down to the planet with him.

Most of the time during his battle against the Collectors, Shepard usually went with a mix of biotics and simple brute force when it came to choosing which of his team members to accompany him on missions. The only problem that he had, though, is that he had no idea what kind of enemy they would be facing down on the planet, if they were facing any.

Despite the chance that they would only have to deal with searching for the missing squadron, Shepard had a feeling that things may go horribly wrong, as it tended to be recently.

So, after some careful consideration, Shepard decided to focus more on the brute force aspect, believing that they wouldn't have to worry too much about biotics.

Shepard reached over to the communicator on his desk, pressing the button labeled for the Main Battery.

"Garrus, you there?"

There was a muffled thunk coming from the other end, followed by a swear before Garrus's voice came through.

"Yes, Shepard. Did you need something?"

"You alright, Garrus?" asked Shepard, even though he had an idea of what happened.

"I'm good. Just banged my head while I was working on some wiring underneath the main cannons."

"I hope you're not causing any damage to those things. We do kind of need those for the Collector base."

"Don't worry, I'm not. Anyway, what's up?"

"Suit up. We've got a mission down on Haestrom, and I'm gonna need your…expertise."

"Hmm…okay." said Garrus, noticing the pause but choosing to ignore it. "I'm on my way."

Satisfied, Shepard released the button before pressing another button for the cargo bay.

"Grunt, you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm still here. What do you want, Shepard?"

"Get yourself suited up. You're coming with me down to Haestrom."

"Sounds fun. Are there any skulls that we can crack down there?" said Grunt, with a hint of glee in his voice.

"We're not sure yet, although I'd give it a pretty high chance that there will be."

Grunt didn't reply, choosing instead to laugh like he always did. As Shepard cut the communications, he could just picture the look on Grunt's face, which made him shake his head in amusement.

Heading back towards the elevator, Shepard headed back down to the CIC and towards the cockpit, watching behind Joker as the planet came into view.

"Joker, any sign of enemy ships on the scanners?"

"No sir, no sign of anything as far as I can see. Although I do have to admit that this kind of worries me, though."

"How so?" asked Shepard, curious to see what Joker had in mind despite already having that same feeling.

"Honestly, I'm expecting an ambush. This really seems way too easy."

"Outside of the unstable sun, I'm assuming you're talking about?"

"Right. Anyway, all I'm asking is for you to be careful. There's no telling what will happen down there, especially after the shit hit the fan last time."

"Don't worry, I took that into consideration. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go get suited up."

Without waiting for a reply, Shepard turned away from the cockpit and headed towards the storage lockers down on the bottom floor.

Once Shepard was fully outfitted, he headed towards the shuttle, only to be met by both Garrus and Grunt, who were both very much ready to go judging from the looks on their faces.

Choosing not to say anything, Shepard gestured towards the shuttle, and the three of them boarded just as the pilot lifted off, heading towards the infamously barren planet that Shepard thought they would never have to go to again.

* * *

Once the team finally landed, the three of them quickly moved to the nearest source of shade before Shepard finally laid out his plan.

"Alright, we're going to need to make this quick so the sun doesn't completely fry our shields. Keep as close as possible to each other, but keep your heads on a swivel. Any sign of hostiles, don't hesitate to call them out."

Both Garrus and Grunt nodded before spreading out so that the three of them would be able to cover more of an area as they began their search, pulling out a sniper rifle and a shotgun respectively to defend themselves.

Shepard took his place in the middle of the group, his feet up against the boundary between the shade and the sun, as his assault rifle was pointed straight in front of them.

"Let's move."

The team immediately began sprinting through the patch of sun towards the next area of shade, wanting to limit as much as possible the strain that the sun put on their shields.

"Check your corners!" said Shepard as they reached the shade.

Once Garrus and Grunt came to a stop, they went off in their respective directions, scanning the area near them for any sign of the missing quarians, but unfortunately there was no sign of them.

"Clear over here, Shepard!" said Garrus.

"Find anything, Grunt?"

"Nope, nothing here."

"Alright, moving on."

The fire team repeated the process, moving towards the next patch of shade and combing through the area, hoping to find any sign of life, but there was absolutely no sign of life so far besides the three of them.

"Shepard, I'm not sure that I like the way this is going. We haven't even seen any clues as to Kal'Reegar's whereabouts. How are we supposed to find them when we've still got ninety percent of the planet to search?" said Garrus, lowering his sniper rifle as he turned towards his commander.

Shepard paused to consider his words before lowering his rifle.

"Yeah, I'll admit that it's strange that there's no sign of them, but with the way things are going with the Collector mission, I tend not to doubt the Illusive Man's sources."

"No offense, Shepard, but I don't think that you're exactly the best judge of character. I don't trust that pyjak shit-slinger as far as I can throw him, which is pretty damn far going by what I've seen of him." said Grunt.

"Believe me, Grunt, I don't either, but we have to work together if we're going to defeat the Collectors and save the rest of the crew."

Grunt opened his mouth to argue, but decided against it, choosing to grumble in protest before remaining silent.

"Let's just keep going for a little while longer. If there's still no sign of them, we may have to call off the search." said Shepard.

"It's too bad. I kind of liked Kal'Reegar. Can't say I agreed too much with his tactics, but they worked in the end."

"Here's hoping for the best, Garrus."

The three of them soon continued on, combing through every patch of shade they could reach, but still there was no sign of any life around. Shepard sighed before turning towards his squadmates.

"Alright, there's no sign of them. We should get back to the ship."

"My sentiments exactly, Shepard." said Grunt, storing his shotgun in the holster on his back.

However, before Shepard could make a move to call for a pickup, they were suddenly interrupted.

"Contact! 11 o' clock!"

Reacting quickly, both Shepard and Grunt pointed their guns in the direction that was specified, only to find nothing there.

Remaining on guard, Shepard lowered his gun before turning towards Garrus, who had his rifle pointed towards the same direction.

"I think the sun might be getting to you, Garrus. I don't see anything over in that direction."

"I only caught a glimpse of them, Shepard. They might still be in the area."

"Who? Kal'Reegar's squadron?"

"No, I could tell that they weren't quarians. It's most likely hostile."

Annoyed, Grunt brandished his shotgun in the direction they were originally pointing.

"Come on out, you bastards, so I can blow holes through you!"

Grunt fired a couple of shots to prove his point, earning himself a stern look from Shepard.

"Not the time, Grunt. They probably must have left, anyway."

Shepard reached towards his ear, intending to call for a shuttle to take them back to the Normandy, only for a shot to ring out, narrowly missing both him and Garrus.

"Shit, get down!"

Garrus and Grunt did as asked and pressed up against the closest cover they could get to. As they scanned through the area around them using their weapons, Shepard turned towards the two of them.

"Did either of you guys spot where that shot came from?"

"Negative. Whoever it was hid pretty quickly after firing that shot." said Garrus.

"Keep an eye out! We can't allow him to get behind us."

Before the three of them could really begin the search, though, the attacker in question suddenly revealed himself, which caught them by complete surprise.

"Well…that was unexpected." said Garrus.

Shepard chose to ignore Garrus's offhanded comment, focusing instead on the being in front of him.

"Wait a second, is that another geth?"

After taking a closer look, Shepard managed to prove his hunch right, as it was in fact another geth.

"What? I thought we chased the geth off of this planet after rescuing Tali!" said Garrus in surprise.

"Come on, Garrus, did you really expect all of the geth to turn tail and run after we came through? There's obviously some that missed the memo!" said Grunt.

Wanting to change the subject, Garrus turned towards Shepard.

"I've got him in my sights, Shepard. Should I take the shot?"

Shepard thought about it for a moment before deciding it was best not to let it live so that it could report to the Collectors. He nodded before turning back towards the geth to watch what happened.

After getting the signal, Garrus peered through the rifle's scope, adjusting his aim before finally squeezing the trigger once he had lined his shot up. Garrus watched as the geth's head exploded into sparks before lowering his gun.

"Target down. Let's get out of here before-"

Garrus didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before hundreds of geth suddenly dropped from the sky on both sides of the awning they were standing under, with many of the types of geth that they fought during their first mission on the planet showing up once more.

"Spirits, that's a lot of them." said Garrus, his eyes wide in surprise.

The three of them all had their weapons trained on the geth around them, spinning around to cover as much ground as they could, which they knew was pretty much impossible. Still, to their surprise, the geth didn't immediately start firing.

Not wanting to waste the chance that he was given, Shepard spoke up, remaining quiet so that the geth wouldn't get an idea of what they were planning.

"On my signal, run as fast as you can to the enclosure to our left. We'll have to make our stand over there."

Garrus and Grunt both nodded, the two of them looking very nervous as they looked around at the sheer number of geth around them.

The area soon fell silent for a few moments before a few of the geth started walking towards them, their guns trained on them. Shepard clearly noticed that fact, which he assumed must be tied to why they still haven't fired.

However, Shepard had no intention of risking trying to find out exactly what they were doing.

"Move!"

Shepard, Garrus and Grunt immediately sprinted towards the enclosure near them, narrowly managing to dodge the hail of gunfire around them.

Once they finally managed to take cover within the enclosure, which was a circular room with large openings that formerly housed windows that were now in pieces along the floor, Garrus turned towards Shepard.

"So what in the hell do we do now? There's no way we're gonna be able to hold out for long. We're gonna run out of ammo!"

Shepard paused for a moment, realizing that Garrus was right and he needed to think of a way out of their predicament.

"Just hold them off for now! I'll think of something!"

Although Garrus was slightly annoyed that Shepard didn't already have a plan in mind, he voiced his concerns in a different way.

"The one time where those self-cooling guns would work, and we're stuck with these! This is just perfect!"

Shepard chose to ignore Garrus, instead focusing on trading fire with the geth outside.

* * *

At first, the firefight was going somewhat well for Shepard and his teammates. They managed to take down a fair share of geth using their conventional weaponry, and they even somehow managed to take down a Colossus as well, which was no small feat for someone not in possession of a heavier weapon.

However, the problem was that, just as Garrus predicted, they began to run low on ammo, as most of their remaining ammo went into the Colossus.

"Shit! I'm down to my last thermal clip! Looks like they're getting a little too close for comfort, too, Shepard!" yelled Garrus, peeking over his cover and noticing how close the geth were getting to them.

Shepard peeked over the cover as well and noticed the wall of geth in front of them.

"I'm on my last clip, too. We need to clear out of here, and quickly! How's your side doing, Grunt?" he asked as he turned towards the opposite side of the room.

"What do you think? There's a shit-ton of geth in front of me! I can barely hold them back!" yelled Grunt as he tried to divide his attention between Shepard and the rapidly-advancing geth.

Knowing that it wasn't going to be much longer before they were overrun, Shepard desperately scanned the area around him while he was firing, looking for a way out of the room they were in.

While there was still an incredibly large number of geth surrounding them, Shepard suddenly noticed that there was a large open area behind the wave of geth in front of him, and it didn't look to be filling up with any more from what he could see.

"Garrus, I think we might be getting to the end of the geth on our side! Let's try and get to that clear space behind them. We might be able to turn things around if we can just get all of the geth on one side of us!"

"Are you crazy? We're gonna get slaughtered out there!"

"Not if Grunt can help us!"

"What? How?" asked Grunt, confused as to what Shepard had in mind.

"I did some research through Okeer's notes and found out that you actually know Fortification. You can use it on the three of us, and we can use it as protection!"

"You know, that could work. At least…as far as a replacement for a biotic barrier." said Garrus, looking contemplative as he continued defending the room.

"Good. Let's not waste any more time. Grunt, come over here and fire off that tech! Once we're protected, you take point. Obviously, you're more…sturdy…than the two of us, so you should be able to plow right through them."

"I'm down with that plan. I've been itching to crack some skulls ever since we landed!" said Grunt, grinning as he crouch-walked over to where Garrus and Shepard were.

After punching a few buttons on his omni-tool, Grunt looked over towards the others and noticed the orange holograms covering his teammates.

"Alright, let's move! We don't have much time until this thing'll wear off!" he yelled.

Grunt immediately hopped over the barricade and started rushing towards the opening behind the geth, forcing Shepard and Garrus to quickly break cover and run to keep up.

Thankfully, they managed to catch up just as Grunt reached the wall of geth, one of them flying off to the side as Grunt clotheslined them.

As Grunt continued steamrolling his way through the river of geth, Shepard and Garrus took up the rear, taking out any of the geth who managed to survive Grunt's assault just so they wouldn't be shot in the back on the way to their destination.

Finally, when it felt to Shepard like they were never going to make it, Grunt finally managed to clear a hole after smacking aside a Hunter. Once the hole appeared, the three of them shot through, sprinting across the expanse before finally getting behind a large boulder with a good amount of shade just as the Fortification ran out.

"Well, good work Shepard. We're out of the eye of that geth tornado, but we still don't have any ammo! What the hell do we do now?" asked Garrus.

"Just throw a grenade or two! I'm gonna radio the Normandy and see if we can get a pickup!"

Although Garrus wasn't too enthusiastic about the idea of risking getting trapped again, he did what Shepard asked and tossed a few grenades, spreading them out to get the desired effect.

"Man, I love watching those things go boom!" said Grunt as he watched a large number of geth go flying into the air, parts scattering everywhere.

"Looks like those grenades bought you some more time, Shepard! Move quickly!" said Garrus as he turned towards his commander.

Shepard quickly ducked behind the rock and reached towards his ear.

"Joker, we need a pickup! Right now!"

"Commander, what the hell is going on down there?" asked Joker through a large amount of static.

"No time to explain, just tell the shuttle pilot to move his ass!"

Shepard paused as he waited for Joker to reply.

"Alright, I've got a lock on your position. Holy shit…"

Joker fell silent as he saw the number of hostiles on the radar.

"This is no time for theatrics, Joker! Just get him down here, now!"

"Right, he's on his way. Just hold on, Commander, he should be there in about five or ten minutes!"

Shepard mentally swore before cutting the communications, turning back towards Garrus and Grunt.

"Shuttle's on its way, but we're going to need to hold them off for a little longer!"

"How? We've already established that we're incredibly low on ammo!" said Grunt.

"Use the rest of it wisely. Go for the optics!"

Both Garrus and Grunt were beginning to think that they probably weren't going to make it that long, but they did begin changing their tactics up, being more careful as they aimed to use as few bullets as possible.

At first it was going pretty well, as Garrus managed to put a string of headshots together. Even Grunt was managing to do good as well, although at a much less efficient pace.

However, things soon began to turn sour as a stray bullet soon managed to catch Garrus.

"Agh! Shit!"

"Garrus, what happened?"

"I'm fine, I just got hit in the shoulder."

Garrus was about ready to continue shooting, only for Shepard to stop him with a hand against his gun.

"Take a rest, Vakarian. I can't have you shooting with a hole in your shoulder like that. Your aim would be terrible!"

Garrus was about to argue, only to realize that Shepard was right, and he was probably only going to hold them back, and with a couple of minutes left before the shuttle arrived, they couldn't risk anything bad happening.

"Fine, Shepard. I'll lay low, but I'm gonna show you later how wrong you were."

Garrus finally ducked down and began applying medigel to the wound, allowing Shepard and Grunt to continue to focus on keeping the wall of geth at bay.

Thankfully, the rest of the defense went pretty well. Grunt got hit a few times, but thanks to him being a Krogan, he barely flinched. Shepard, meanwhile, was lucky to avoid getting hit thanks to a timely Fortification from Grunt.

Finally, just when Shepard was about to run out of ammo, his earpiece crackled to life.

"Shuttle's here, Commander! Head two klicks to the west! Quickly!"

Shepard turned towards the others.

"Our ride's here! Let's get the hell out of here!"

"Yeah, except there's one problem. I'm out of ammo." said Grunt.

"Me too. We're basically going to be sitting ducks out there if we try to run for it."

Shepard paused as he tried to think of a plan.

"Do either of you have a smoke grenade?"

Both of them shook their heads. However, just as Shepard was about to formulate a Plan B, Garrus looked down at Shepard's side.

"Hey Commander, isn't that a smoke grenade down there?"

He pointed towards where he was looking, and Shepard looked down and saw that there was indeed a single smoke grenade clipped to his belt.

"Huh…must have forgotten I grabbed one."

"Yeah, yeah, just throw it out there and let's get the hell out of here." said Grunt, looking annoyed.

Shepard paused for a moment before grabbing the grenade, pulling the pin and throwing it towards the geth. As soon as the smoke began billowing out, Shepard signaled for them to move.

"We're covered! Let's go!"

Shepard, Garrus, and Grunt shot out of their hiding place, booking it towards the west as blaster bolts tore through the cloud of smoke.

Thankfully, they just managed to avoid those shots, and they also managed to put some distance between them and the geth before the smoke cleared and the geth caught on that the fireteam escaped.

As shots continued to fly past them, Garrus, Grunt and Shepard continued running as fast as they could. While they continued on, Shepard's earpiece once again came to life.

"Commander, hurry up! I can't stay here much longer! The sun's frying the shuttle's shields!"

"We're almost there! Just hold on a little bit longer!" replied Shepard.

Almost as if Shepard predicted it, the shuttle came over the horizon just as he said it. Once the doors opened to admit them, all three of the guys picked up speed, not wanting to leave the shuttle open to fire from the geth army now chasing after them.

Finally, when Shepard was beginning to feel winded from the sheer speed he was going at, they finally reached the shuttle.

Garrus ended up being the first there, and he hopped up inside, reaching out his hand to grab Shepard and Grunt when they came up, despite the considerable weight of the krogan.

Once they were all inside, Garrus shut the door, and the three of them immediately sat down as the shuttle lifted off.

It was incredibly close, as they all could see thermal shots flying by the cockpit window. But eventually, the shots stopped coming.

"We're clear! Shouldn't be too long before we get back to the Normandy." said the pilot.

All three members of the fireteam let out a breath, relieved that they somehow managed to survive.

"Spirits, that was too close." said Garrus, leaning back in his seat as his brain registered what just happened.

"Well, at least we made it. Can't say the same about Kal'Reegar, though." said Shepard.

"You know, I'm beginning to think that something was fishy about this whole mission, Shepard." said Grunt.

"Really? How so?"

"It seemed way too convenient that hundreds of geth just happened to drop down from the sky to attack us. I think someone tried to ambush us."

"You know, Grunt does have a point. Who knows if Kal'Reegar was even down on that planet?"

Shepard paused in thought as he considered what the others said.

"I'll see if I can contact the Migrant Fleet, see if they know where he was. If he was there the whole time, I think I'm gonna give the Illusive Man a piece of my mind."

* * *

The shuttle finally managed to dock in the Normandy a little while after the escape from Haestrom. Once Shepard and the others disembarked, he didn't waste any time.

"EDI, send a message to the Migrant Fleet. I want to know if they have any idea where Kal'Reegar was located."

"Right away, Commander." said EDI.

By the time Shepard managed to make it back up to the CIC, he was notified of a new message, and his expression turned dark when he received word that Kal'Reegar managed to make it off of Haestrom fine after Tali's rescue, and he was on the Fleet the whole time.

"Joker, send a message to the Illusive Man. I need to talk to him…right now."

"Sure thing, Commander. Sending the message now."

Shepard headed towards the comm room and stepped into the scanner, watching as the Illusive Man appeared in front of him just like always.

"Shepard! I didn't expect to get a call back from you so soon after our last meeting."

"Don't give me that bullcrap. The Migrant Fleet told me that Kal'Reegar was safe with them, and not down on Haestrom. All that was there were hundreds of geth, who nearly shredded my men and I into pieces!"

The Illusive Man looked noticeably surprised when he heard what Shepard said, although Shepard was unsure whether it was truly surprise or just careful acting.

"I assure you, Shepard, I had no idea that something along those lines would have happened. I just went along with what information I was given."

"Oh come on, Illusive Man, you can't believe everything that comes into your lap. Don't you usually fact check these kinds of things?"

"Yes, I do, Shepard. I've found absolutely nothing during my research that made me believe that this was suspicious. Nothing at all."

Shepard still wasn't sure whether to believe him or not, but as much as he wanted to confront him, he knew that they still had to work together if they wanted to stop the Collectors.

"Fine, I'll believe you for now, but if something comes up that implicates you or Cerberus in this, I won't hesitate to take you down."

The Illusive Man looked unfazed, choosing to remain silent as Shepard disconnected the call. After sighing and running his hands over his face, Shepard returned to the CIC and stepped up towards the galaxy map.

"Joker, set a course for Illium. We should probably be getting back to the mission at hand."

"Aye-aye, commander."

And so, the Normandy set off on its journey towards Illium, the crew inside ready more than ever to return to its battle against the Collectors. However, as much as Shepard wanted to know all he could about who would send an army of geth after him, he would never find out, as the mission took too much of his time to be able to do so.

* * *

 **Alright, so just to clarify at what point at the story this took place in, this is after the events on Horizon where all of the minor crewmembers on the Normandy were taken. Shepard had recruited all of the team members except for Thane and Samara, and he has already completed the loyalty missions for Grunt and Garrus, which is why they each have their unlocked powers.**

 **Anyway, now that that's out of the way, I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to read this. I put a lot of effort into it, so I hope that you've enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. So, until the next time when I can think of a Mass Effect-related story to tell, I'll see you guys later!**

 **RK**


End file.
